Due To Lack of Evidence, Former Mayor of Temixco Is Released

A state judge ordered the release of the former mayor of Temixco, Miguel Ángel Colín Nava, who is charged with the alleged diversion of more than 80 million pesos ($4,219,300 USD).

Colín Nava was released at the end of the trail-related hearing held on Thursday, in which the judge considered that the evidence provided was not sufficient enough to bring him to trial and send him to custody.

This would have been the second arrest of a former mayor because last month his Cuautla counterpart, Jesús González Otero, was arrested under the same accusations.  Both belong to the PRD party.

The former official was mayor of the Morelos municipality during 2012-2015 and was apprehended yesterday afternoon when he left the hospital ‘Dr. José G. Parres’, located in Cuernavaca, where he currently works.  He was then taken to the Social Reinsertion Center of Atlacholoaya, in the municipality of Xochitepec.

According to Juan Jesús Salazar Núñez, head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, there was an investigation against Colín Nava carried out by the Superior Audit and Inspection Entity (ESAF), whereby a judge granted the arrest warrant against the former mayor, predecessor of Gisela Mota Ocampo, also belonging to the PRD party, who was assassinated a few hours after taking office on January 2, 2016.

Gisela’s family has pointed a finger at Senator Fidel Demédicis Hidalgo, because of an interest on his part on taking control of the municipal administration in Temixco.  The family says that Demédicis is Colín’s protector, and that the 200 million peso debt that Colín incurred while mayor was a possible motive for Mota’s assassination.

The accusation that weighs on the former mayor is that he used current expenditure resources that were labeled and destined for public works.  In addition, it is affirmed that neither could verify a series of purchases carried out by the city council.

According to the information provided by Vicente Loredo, head of the ESAF, various resources of the city council would have been deposited in accounts under the name of certain individuals.

Both Colín Nava and González Otero, who is currently imprisoned waiting trial since March, are PRD members linked to the group of Senator Fidel Demédicis Hidalgo, also a PRD member but who has now declared himself independent and in open support of the presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Demédicis Hidalgo was active in the national current of the PRD headed by “Los Chuchos”, like Graco Ramírez, however, both members are opposing each other in Morelos.

Meanwhile, the anti-corruption prosecutor, Salazar Núñez, recently confirmed by the local congress, was in charge of legal affairs of the government of Graco [Ramírez] and his personal lawyer, reasons why his decisions have been questioned as approvals by the governor himself.

According to indications imposed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, established in criminal case SC/327/2017, Colín Nava is responsible for an economic deviation of more than 80 million pesos, however, Judge Adolfo González López considered the evidence provided by the prosecution to be insufficient.

Sources: Milenio, Proceso, Reforma